Nashville police are searching for a man accused of punching a white woman who was dining with her African-American boyfriend at a pub following a “White Lives Matter” rally in Tennessee over the weekend.
In a statement, Nashville police said a group of white men and women entered the local Brentwood bar Saturday, Oct. 28, and sat behind the interracial couple. That’s when one of the individuals, who mentioned the group was involved with the “White Lives Matter” rally, invited the woman to join their table and leave her boyfriend.
A heated argument ensued, prompting the female victim to step outside the restaurant in hopes of de-escalating the situation. The woman told police she was followed outside where a man struck her in the face with his fist, leaving a cut above her eye, according to a police press release.
Once law enforcement arrived, both parties parties were gone. The victim later returned to the restaurant to file a police report, however. She said the group fled in multiple vehicles, including a white van with a Wisconsin license plate and a sedan with a New York plate.
The alleged assault happened just hours after one of two White Lives Matter rallies were held in Shelbyville on Saturday, CBS News reported. A second rally in Murfreesboro,Tenn., about 33 miles southeast of Brentwood, was canceled after white nationalists sympathizers failed to show up. Both rallies were organized in the wake of the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. that left one counter-protester dead.
